Re: Aluminium aka Aluminum Wire (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

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Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 09:02:58 -0800
From: Jonathan Peakall <jpeakall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Aluminium aka Aluminum Wire (fwd)

When I was a kid, we had a house that was wired with AL. Switches and 
outlets failed all the time. I was the one that fixed them, and I recall 
seeing a lot of metal fatigue. The wire would break right where it was 
connected, and would be white where the fatigue had made it snap. Apperently 
the AL would wear and weaken due to current surges. I'm not sure if the 
current surges caused phisical movement that resullted in fatigue, or if it 
was the passage of the current itself. We ened up having the entire house 
re-wired, possibly with some finacial help from a class action lawsuit. I 
was old enough to fix outlets but too young to care about the legal and 
finacial details.

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Some people are like a Slinky .. not really good for anything,
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>
> As far as aluminum wire is concerned it has its place, but I seem to
> remember that after WW II a lot of houses were wired with aluminum.
> Many fires resulted because of poor connections to convenience boxes
> etc. So, if you are going to use it in coiling it might be well to find
> out what it takes to make good connections using it.